And on top of knowing what to publish on which social network,
another big question business owners struggle with is the best
time to post.

Publishing your content at peak times can help you reach the most
people on those networks.

Turns out the best time depends which social network you're
posting to, according to popular URL shortening service bitly. It
tracks metrics on bitly links that are shared across networks. In
particular, bitly has examined how the day and time something is
posted affects how "viral" it might eventually become.

Facebook: For the best
click-through rate, bitly suggests posting to Facebook between 1
p.m. and 4 p.m. EST. Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST is the peak time of
the week to post. Traffic from Facebook fades after 4 p.m.
Weekend posts often get less attention than weekdays.

Twitter: Your best chance of
getting high click counts on Twitter is with tweets sent in the
afternoon earlier in the week -- namely 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST,
Monday through Thursday. Bitly suggests users avoid posting after
8 p.m. or after 3 p.m. on Fridays. As with Facebook, weekend
tweets are less effective than those sent during the week.

Tumblr: This social network
has a "drastically different pattern of usage" than Facebook or
Twitter, bitly says. Tumblr traffic from bitly links peaks
between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. EST on Monday and Tuesday, with
similar traffic on Sunday. Friday evening -- a time that's
generally ineffective for other networks -- can be an optimal
time to post on Tumblr. On average, content posted after 7 p.m.
receives more clicks over 24 hours than mid-day posts during the
week.